When the Freedom of Information Act was introduced it gave us access to a raft of previously secret information. Now the Government wants to scale down usage of the act. Adam Jupp spoke to Maurice Frankel, head of the Campaign for Freedom of Information

The Government thinks we know too much about it.

Only two years after bringing the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act fully into force, ministers have decided to severely cut back the right to know.

The Government says it is merely targeting the more expensive requests, to keep costs down. But the act itself costs only £35m a year.

The cuts are supposed to save just under £12m annually, a tiny sum in government terms. After all, the National Audit Office says the Government could save £660m by more careful purchasing of office supplies. And we've just learned that the London Olympics may cost several billions more than anticipated.

What the Government really wants is a bit more privacy from our prying eyes. FOI is beginning to put ministers under pressure.

We are learning more about the costs of contentious policies like identity cards. We now know that the Government considered weakening money laundering controls to encourage US-style super-casinos in the UK.

Unwelcome information about ministers' meetings with commercial lobbyists has been disclosed. FOI has revealed that the apparent success of some academy schools, favoured by the Government, is due not to better teaching but to the selection of pupils from better-off backgrounds.

At local level, the act has been even more effective. Spending on contracts, consultancies and expenses has come under new scrutiny.

FOI requests have revealed the success rates of individual heart surgeons, the failures of some restaurants to meet hygiene standards, the millions spent by councils employing temporary agency staff instead of full-time employees, the number of taxi drivers with drink-driving or assault convictions, the amounts hospitals make from parking charges and the care centres whose policy was to leave patients in their rooms during a fire.

Now the Government wants to make it much easier for authorities to reject FOI requests. At the moment, they can refuse to answer if the cost of finding the information would be more than £450 or, in the case of government departments, £600. Ministers want them to also count the cost of the time spent discussing and deciding what to do about the request.

Requests about complex, contentious or just unfamiliar issues would be most at risk. The public interest in disclosure could be ignored.

The hours needed to deal with an unwelcome request could be extended by deliberately consulting lawyers or other specialists.

Ministers also want to allow authorities to add up the cost of all the requests made by the same individual or organisation to an authority during any three months, and refuse them if the total is more than the £450 or £600 limit.

A newspaper, campaign group, MP or other regular requester might then be limited to one or two requests a quarter. The casualties could include those requests which do most to inform public debate, extend openness and help hold authorities to account.

Freedom of information has been a Labour commitment for 30 years. Having brought the legislation into force just two years ago the Government ought to be taking pride in its success - not trying to stifle it.

The government is now consulting about these proposals. Let your MP know that you want more, not less, freedom of information.

The Chronicle has brought you a string of top stories after using the Freedom of Information Act.

Last month, we made a three-day investigation into crime in your neighbourhood with details of all offences committed in the Northumbria and Durham police forces last year.

We also used the Act successfully in our Answers for Aaron campaign, launched after the murder of 92-day-old Aaron O'Neil, of Kenton.

In July, we dished the dirt on hygiene horrors in a hospital kitchen. Out-of-date milk, under-heated chicken and filthy floors were just some of the problems found at North Tyneside General when we obtained a copy of its council hygiene inspection report.

And we unearthed never-seen-before documents about riots on the Meadow Well estate, North Shields, 15 years ago. Secret papers we accessed told for the first time how the disturbances cost Northumbria Police £7.5m.